An Ohrid Weekend!

We spent last weekend by Lake Ohrid in Macedonia with a group of friends collected from all corners of the world.  Lake Ohrid is about 4-5 hours drive from Gjilan (factoring in stops to buy local honey from roadside vendors and toilet breaks in scary service stations).  Here are some pics.

The private jetty into the lake from our terrace

Kelly and I engrossed in a game of backgammon on the terrace

Our neighbour sorting through his morning catch

A family of swans that paddled up to visit us

Cailean from Canada preparing us all a hardcore Canadian brekky: french toast with bacon, doused in maple syrup.

Kelly and Ali enjoying that brekky on the terrace.

Pics from around the local market

Around town

The church on the hill above the house where we were staying.

Silver linings

Our neighbours had a boat called the 'Captain Cook' and we hired it for a sunset cruise around the lake

The ship!

Captain Cook himself!

Captain Cook's wife had prepared us some sunset snacks - grilled fresh fish and breaded eggplant and zucchinis

Cailean and Ali

Camille and Penny

Kelly and Mariya

Kelly and Me

Me and Romain

The end!

and thanks Kel and Ali for sharing your great pics.

Oh say can you see

Yes!  The White House!  As a restaurant!  Again, in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.

Kosovo sure does know how to do bizarro better than most.  The food was delicious - all cooked in an outdoors wood-fired oven.  They did the most amazing baked mushroom dish and Romain, Kelly and I ate like kings for less than 10 euros each.

Hot diggity dawg.  Raaaght-on, Kosovo!

It's Show Time!

On a drive through the mountains yesterday we happened upon a gypsy fair.

In the middle of absolutely nowhere, with a smattering of local kids and kindly looking ride operators.

It is show/ecca time back in Australia at the moment, and while there were no show bags (I would have LOVED to see what they put in a Kosovo show bag) or dagwood dogs (which would be even more dubious here than in Australia), it was still nice (and nicely surreal) to have a dose of the show, lost in the middle of Kosovo.

When my friend Rachael saw the pics she said the place looked like a Stephen King abandoned fair ground horror film set.  Fair call, really.  That mannequin lady was creepy.  And maybe that gypsy man's smile was actually less cheerful and more chilling as he thought of all the foreigners' bodies he had secretly stashed in his caravan beside the dodgem car ride....